There is a mod for phpbb named Smartfeed which can be integreated. Here is the description:

Code:

This hack allows users to get a newsfeed for selected forums, including restricted forums if they have the privilege. This is done by using an interface program called smartfeed_url.php which creates a URL that authenticates the user with phpBB. Smartfeed is smart enough to keep users out of forums for which they do not have access, even if they hack parameters on the URL field. Authentication is reasonably sophisticated. Those who are not registered can access in the newsfeed only those forums that can be read by the public.

The URL generated by smartfeed_url.php is then copied and pasted by the user into their newsreader. The user needs to be smart enough to specify a newsfeed that their newsreader can interpret. RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 newsfeeds are supported.

Is this what you want?

I have been thinking of this for the main page as well. Could be interesting when there are new pianists and recordings or possible other information.

Yeah, that's the stuff. RSS for the forum would make sense. Also, what I'd really like is a feed of recordings posted on the public site, so I can subscribe to a Piano Society podcast!

(A podcast for the Audition Room would be great too, but maybe harder to do.)

I have thought of this and even downloaded the manual for how to create iTunes podcasts (they do not differ from any other RSS podcast). It might be a good idea for new recordings but perhaps to even list the entire recording structure. Not sure as I am an RSS newbie . Should not be too hard to automatically create a new RSS feed every day in an XML formatted document using cron though.

Er, not automagically.... I need to take care of that. Getting sloppy....

It probably should be automatic, no? What's the uploading process like, and can the content management software (whatever it is) help streamline it? If nothing is done this will only become more annoying for you as the site's growth accelerates.

What I feel one must do is to program a script which is run every night in crontab which checks for new uploaded recordings and builds the XML-file automatically. To manually create the file is not an option as that will take too much time.

What I feel one must do is to program a script which is run every night in crontab which checks for new uploaded recordings and builds the XML-file automatically. To manually create the file is not an option as that will take too much time.

Absolutely, it has to be scripted. I'm a competent shell scripter. If you can tell me where on the filesystem music files get placed and how, I'll work out the logic of scanning for new recordings. Send me email with details.

About the cross-references between pianist/composer/recording, that really has to get automated too so you guys don't go crazy (but likely that's something that has to be solved in the content management system, so I can't so easily offer to hack something together...)

Absolutely, it has to be scripted. I'm a competent shell scripter. If you can tell me where on the filesystem music files get placed and how, I'll work out the logic of scanning for new recordings. Send me email with details.

I already created a script (/home/chris/bin/new) that runs every night via cron and creates a page of new recordings (i.e. audio files that were created/modified in the last month). Maybe not the last word in scripting but it does the job. Providing additional output in XML rather than HTML should not be too hard to implement.

schmonz wrote:

About the cross-references between pianist/composer/recording, that really has to get automated too so you guys don't go crazy (but likely that's something that has to be solved in the content management system, so I can't so easily offer to hack something together...)

I'd love it if pages were updated automaticaly when a new record is uploaded. But the Exponent CMS does not allow dynamic HTML, if I have understood correctly. Actually I'd prefer to create all the pages dynamically, based on text files and audio files, than maintaining them in Exponent CMS. But that will be some work. It would save time however in the long run. Sort of like Classic Cat is doing, all tyheir pages are dynamically generated by scripts.

Restarting this topic a bit. I have just added an RSS feed to the news module and launched it on the main page. This will not provide RSS feeds for the forum but for the site but depends on that either me or Chris manually add news. Not perfect as it would be better if the feed was created automatically once a recording was uploaded but at least a start. I will rearrange the old news page a bit to serve this purpose better.

The first two files should look awfully similar to their live counterparts (though I haven't actually let "all" run to completion), and the third is what will soon be ready to be our podcast feed. It's missing one piece of metadata, though: the MP3's duration. How are you guys-n-gals currently determining that when you post a new recording? If there's an automated tool installed, please point me at it; otherwise, we'll want to install http://www.ibiblio.org/mp3info/ or something similar.

Also, for testing purposes, could someone mkdir /var/www/virtualhost/server3.pianosociety.com/schmonz, chown'd to me, chmod 755? Once the feed has all the necessary metadata I'll want to put a copy there, run it through a validator, various browsers and feed readers, iTunes, etc., and fix whatever needs fixing. When it's really ready to publish we can rmdir schmonz and put it at a stable URL.

The first two files should look awfully similar to their live counterparts (though I haven't actually let "all" run to completion), and the third is what will soon be ready to be our podcast feed. It's missing one piece of metadata, though: the MP3's duration. How are you guys-n-gals currently determining that when you post a new recording? If there's an automated tool installed, please point me at it; otherwise, we'll want to install http://www.ibiblio.org/mp3info/ or something similar.

On the server, and privately, I have been using id3tag. This does not seem to have a method to get the duration, so I calculate that from the bitrate and the filesize.

mp3info looks promising, we should certainly install that. Thanks for the tip.

schmonz wrote:

Also, for testing purposes, could someone mkdir /var/www/virtualhost/server3.pianosociety.com/schmonz, chown'd to me, chmod 755? Once the feed has all the necessary metadata I'll want to put a copy there, run it through a validator, various browsers and feed readers, iTunes, etc., and fix whatever needs fixing. When it's really ready to publish we can rmdir schmonz and put it at a stable URL.

Done that.
Although, knowing sod all about RSS, I really have no clue what it is you are doing ! Yes, create an xml-file, but what next ?

I downloaded mp3info, and it's as good as useless.... because it supports only ID3V1.x tags, and all our tags (created by iTunes or other software) are ID3V2.x.
That is a shame as it would make my life a lot easier. I have a terrible time with spurious crashes in the C++ id3lib library, and the documentation of that API really sucks.

OK, so we need a tool like mp3info but a little more modern. I'll see what I can rustle up.

XML-schmecksML, as far as I'm concerned, except the end result is this case is worthwhile: someone can go into iTunes and provide the URL to this XML file once, and iTunes will notify him when there's a new recording (and give him the option to download it then and there). That's all a podcast is: an RSS feed where articles have multimedia content. So iTunes is just an example: any feed reader suffices to get notifications of newly published pieces. I already do most of my internet reading via RSS, so I think that's pretty cool, but if you haven't got the feed religion, you might not.

(RSS for forum posts would be great too, if it can be arranged, but that's a separate problem.)

OK, so we need a tool like mp3info but a little more modern. I'll see what I can rustle up.

I tried a few other tools, and it looks like we can't yank duration out of the ID3 tag data because it isn't stored there (!). So the next idea would be a command-line MP3 player that can spit out the duration without actually trying to play anything...

I tried a few other tools, and it looks like we can't yank duration out of the ID3 tag data because it isn't stored there (!). So the next idea would be a command-line MP3 player that can spit out the duration without actually trying to play anything...

Nope, I don't think it is stored in the mp3. The Id3Lib API does not have a method or property for it and that is a sure sign. I can calculate it if it's a CBR recording but if it's VBR then I guess you have to play the file before you know the length. This why I really only want CBR recordings.
The calculation is easy enough in C but I would not quite know how to script it.

BTW schmontz, you'll have to teach me the basics od RSS feeds as I don't really understand what it is you have been doing. It would be nice if people can subscribe to the new recordings list.

Okay, the latest mp3splt spits out track length to stderr as it works, and I've got a sed expression to convert that to the format iTunes wants. For the time being, it has to do a useless split to /dev/null, but that's quick enough for automation purposes, and I've put in a request for a command-line argument to just print the duration of the input and exit. Could you install mp3splt? Probably handy to have on the server anyway, for quick-trimming submissions that need it.

The easiest way to start with RSS and Atom, assuming you have a Gmail account, is Google Reader. It should give you the idea pretty quickly, and some folks like it well enough to use as their primary feed reader.

JDK? Yikes. I didn't need that on my NetBSD or Mac OS X systems when I was packaging mp3splt for pkgsrc. I'm pretty ignorant about other package systems, but judging from this page, looks like the command to try is "apt-get install mp3splt":

JDK? Yikes. I didn't need that on my NetBSD or Mac OS X systems when I was packaging mp3splt for pkgsrc. I'm pretty ignorant about other package systems, but judging from this page, looks like the command to try is "apt-get install mp3splt":

So I do 'apt-get -f install --fix-missing' and , after throwing the 404 errors again, apt-get proceeds to just sit there eating up all the cpu.

Lastly, I do 'apt-get update' and it throws me a lot of blurb, 404 error, and lastly the message

E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Seems like apt-get update did not help any as the original install command still thros the same errors. Cripes, this hairy-fairy stuff does get on my nerves. So much for Linux saving the world... give me Windows anytime

I think I'll give up on trying to install anything. Earlier attempts to install the JDK 1.4 ended in a similar quagmire.

Yuck. Tell you what, I'll try build mp3splt into my home dir using pkgsrc (and then get rid of pkgsrc). In order to bootstrap pkgsrc the system needs to have libncurses-dev and/or libtermcap -- can apt-get at least do those for us?

Yuck. Tell you what, I'll try build mp3splt into my home dir using pkgsrc (and then get rid of pkgsrc). In order to bootstrap pkgsrc the system needs to have libncurses-dev and/or libtermcap -- can apt-get at least do those for us?

I have not made friends with apt-get yet. It keeps throwing HTTP 404 errors at me whatever I try. Maybe I should try and use another repository URL but I am not sure what to choose.

But why would mp3slt, which I assume to be a commandline utility, need termcap or even curses

It's the pkgsrc tools themselves that need some terminal awareness -- at least tnftp, which has a nice interactive mode. (Then again, I'm still amazed that apt-get wanted to pull in Java for mp3splt. Something in the middle obviously thinks it needs it, I just have no idea what that could possibly be...)

According to /etc/lsb-release, the OS is Ubuntu 6.10. That's pretty old, right? Maybe too old for the repositories to be around anymore? https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/ubuntu/ser ... t-get.html is the most specific apt-get documentation I can find about that version, and maybe the apt-get update will help with the 404's. (In the long run I'd guess we'd want to keep a little closer to the latest Ubuntu, though of course that requires someone to do the work.)

It's the pkgsrc tools themselves that need some terminal awareness -- at least tnftp, which has a nice interactive mode. (Then again, I'm still amazed that apt-get wanted to pull in Java for mp3splt. Something in the middle obviously thinks it needs it, I just have no idea what that could possibly be...)

According to /etc/lsb-release, the OS is Ubuntu 6.10. That's pretty old, right? Maybe too old for the repositories to be around anymore? https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/ubuntu/ser ... t-get.html is the most specific apt-get documentation I can find about that version, and maybe the apt-get update will help with the 404's. (In the long run I'd guess we'd want to keep a little closer to the latest Ubuntu, though of course that requires someone to do the work.)

I am not not sure if we really want to keep up with Ubuntu patches, as long as we have no problems. It would perhaps make sense to do so, but we have not got a dedicated sysadmin. Personally I want to stay away from this quicksand as much as possible, and I am not sure if the issue at hand is worth all the trouble.

But, if you think mp3splt is something we must have I can ask the Swedish admin guy to see if he can install it.

(In the long run I'd guess we'd want to keep a little closer to the latest Ubuntu, though of course that requires someone to do the work.)

I am not not sure if we really want to keep up with Ubuntu patches, as long as we have no problems. It would perhaps make sense to do so, but we have not got a dedicated sysadmin.

Okay, I was wondering that (that's why I qualified my guess). mp3splt or no mp3splt, if Ubuntu 6.x is no longer being supported (which I don't know for a fact), then the system is fragile against e.g., security holes, which tend to rear their head at inconvenient junctures and consume annoying amounts of time to deal with, unless the OS can be expected to provide convenient and timely updates for such things. Which Ubuntu definitely does, for whatever versions of Ubuntu they're paying that kind of attention to.

So despite the fact that none of this is gonna be news to you, I'd say now's the time to think about the bigger-picture problem pretty carefully (if you haven't already), precisely because it isn't hurting right now.

I would be happy to volunteer some of my sysadmin-time -- including doing a significant upgrade of the OS, if we can plan it well enough that we're comfortable -- starting in a couple weeks, when midterm exams and papers are behind me. Would you be open to that?

I would be happy to volunteer some of my sysadmin-time -- including doing a significant upgrade of the OS, if we can plan it well enough that we're comfortable -- starting in a couple weeks, when midterm exams and papers are behind me. Would you be open to that?

Yes we could certainly use some help in this area. I'll need to discuss this with Robert though. As far as I remember the two of you previously agreed on something but I am not sure what exactly it was.

Me neither. I'm dead to the world until the 19th but then I have winter break, perfect for taking however long it takes to do whatever needs to be done for server health (and RSS feeds). Could you try to work something out with Robert for me in the next few weeks? And then I'd need you guys to be available around during some of that time to explain any confusing details of the status quo and vet/approve/veto the changes I'll want to propose. Is that doable?

The first two files should look awfully similar to their live counterparts (though I haven't actually let "all" run to completion), and the third is what will soon be ready to be our podcast feed. It's missing one piece of metadata, though: the MP3's duration. How are you guys-n-gals currently determining that when you post a new recording? If there's an automated tool installed, please point me at it; otherwise, we'll want to install http://www.ibiblio.org/mp3info/ or something similar.

Also, for testing purposes, could someone mkdir /var/www/virtualhost/server3.pianosociety.com/schmonz, chown'd to me, chmod 755? Once the feed has all the necessary metadata I'll want to put a copy there, run it through a validator, various browsers and feed readers, iTunes, etc., and fix whatever needs fixing. When it's really ready to publish we can rmdir schmonz and put it at a stable URL.

Hmmm... this stuff seems to have gone missing since I last worked on it. In fact, my home directory looks awfully empty. Chris, Robert, is there a backup from which my nearly-finished work could be restored? I've got time and I'd really like to see Piano Society doing podcasting -- and not only because it's the only way I'll ever stand a chance of keeping up with all the new music published here. :-p

Hmmm... this stuff seems to have gone missing since I last worked on it. In fact, my home directory looks awfully empty. Chris, Robert, is there a backup from which my nearly-finished work could be restored? I've got time and I'd really like to see Piano Society doing podcasting -- and not only because it's the only way I'll ever stand a chance of keeping up with all the new music published here. :-p

The Return Of The Schmonz In dire need of diskspace, we zipped up your homedir and moved it to another partition. Frankly, we did not think you were with us anymore, in terms of being involved in the site. But if you intend to continue, of course I can put it all back again.

Whoops, I'd had an SSH key in place from before (that was still working yesterday) and now I seem not to have it anymore -- I'm being prompted for a password instead (beats me what it is, if I ever had one set). Is there a copy of my ~/.ssh/authorized_keys you could put back? If not, please create it (owned by schmonz, mode 600) with the following contents:

Whoops, I'd had an SSH key in place from before (that was still working yesterday) and now I seem not to have it anymore -- I'm being prompted for a password instead (beats me what it is, if I ever had one set). Is there a copy of my ~/.ssh/authorized_keys you could put back? If not, please create it (owned by schmonz, mode 600) with the following contents:

Thanks Chris! I'm in and cleaned out the waste. Can you mkdir /var/www/virtualhost/server3.pianosociety.com/schmonz such that I can write to it (for testing, it'll go away when I'm done)?

Also, the work I had done before was to refactor your "new" script to generate XML in addition to the HTML. I see that the "new" script has since been tweaked with a time column and the donation banner, so I'll have to carefully catch up with those changes. Anything else I should watch out for?

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